This conference paper was submitted for presentation at the NAFEMS World Congress 2025, held in Salzburg, Austria from May 19–22, 2025.

Abstract

In recent years, the pursuit of lightweight products has become a critical objective, particularly in the automotive industry. An increasing number of components are being replaced with non-reinforced and fiber-reinforced plastic materials to meet stringent demands for both weight reduction and safety. However, this shift introduces significant challenges in industrial crashworthiness and pedestrian safety simulations, especially for larger components with locally varying mechanical properties influenced by the injection molding process. From a simulation perspective, addressing these challenges requires a multi-step process: (i) conducting an injection molding simulation, (ii) mapping the resulting material properties onto the structural mesh, (iii) preparing accurate material model definitions, (iv) performing the structural simulation, and (v) analyzing the results. While effective, this workflow can be resource-intensive, particularly during the early design stages when design geometry is still evolving, and full-scale injection molding simulations with standard solvers are prohibitively costly in terms of time and budget. To tackle these challenges efficiently, this work proposes, additionally to the standard injection molding analyses, a simplified solution that streamlines the integration between injection molding and structural simulations. This approach enables multiple "what-if" studies and optimization loops, facilitating rapid iteration during early design stages, while maintaining decent quality results. Additionally, this helps to bridge the gap between structural and molding engineers by introducing simplified solvers, empowering engineers from various disciplines to explore molding effects without extensive expertise. A benchmark study was conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach using a common plastic compartment subjected to standard loading tests. For this purpose, a common plastic part of hat-profile shape was picked. Simulations were performed with both conventional isotropic material models and high-fidelity orthotropic material models derived from injection molding simulation data. The results highlight and quantify the impact of manufacturing processes on the component'™s crashworthiness, underscoring the importance of incorporating manufacturing effects into structural simulations.